


The Golden Hour

by pporksodaa



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Aka me, I write Alfred black, M/M, also shout out to gerame on tumblr for totally validating this beach date idea thank u, also you can pry Alfred calling Lud baby boy out of my cold dead hands, alternatively called Peaches, ameger - Freeform, and not light skinned either so fight me, anyway, gerame - Freeform, i live for nicknames, not racially ambiguous, title is based on The Golden Hour when a lot of black people consider this to be the best lighting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-06
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2019-05-18 20:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14860040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pporksodaa/pseuds/pporksodaa
Summary: Ludwig and Alfred share a beach date. Does Ludwig's love of fruit cause trouble? Spoiler: no, it doesn't :)





	The Golden Hour

**Author's Note:**

> this is my contribution to the tons of wholesome gerame content out there. i'm not good at writing and i crammed this out bc I'm going to AZ soon. anyway, Alfred is black in this, not racially ambiguous, and not light-skinned. i write him that way. kudos and (nice) comments are appreciated :))))))))) shoutout to gerame on tumblr for validating this beach date idea thank u thank u

“Ludwig! Over here!” 

 

Hearing his name called, the man lifted his head, eyes sweeping the sparse crowd until he found the source of the call. An unmistakable voice, and an even less-so face. Among the strangers that passed him, minding their own business, Ludwig saw him. Alfred. 

 

A small smile came to his lips despite himself, and he came to the railing that lined the ramp down into the sandy beach below. Just a few feet down, but enough so that when Alfred skittered over across the sand and to the ramp, he had to look up to see Ludwig properly. And also Ludwig was a fuckin’ beanstalk in terms of height, it felt like sometimes.

 

“Finally,” Alfred said, white teeth gleaming especially bright against his dark skin. “I was beginnin’ to think you weren’t comin’.”

“Ah, no, nothing like that. I didn’t mean to be late, I had to pick up sunscreen from the store. I hadn’t realized I didn’t have any,” Ludwig told him, eyes picking up on the fluorescent orange of Alfred’s swim trunks. Oh, he hated those swim trunks. They were obnoxious. But he couldn’t complain much, Alfred was handsome in them anyway. “I’m sorry. I should have called.”

“Aw, baby boy. I forgot how easily you burn. No need to apologize! Well, come on down, won’t ya? I have a spot picked out for us, with the umbrella!” Alfred waved for him to come on, meeting him at the bottom of the ramp and reaching for his hand.

 

Ludwig laced their fingers, feeling the warmth of his skin. Alfred absorbed a lot, he had come to notice, because of how dark his skin was. It made Ludwig look  _ incredibly  _ pale in comparison, but it was beautiful. He followed Alfred to where the American had spread out his beach towel and set up the umbrella, spreading out his own towel next to him and putting his bag down. 

 

“I know there’s vendors and shops around, but I brought snacks anyway,” he said. “I brought cucumber slices, honey lavender macarons, watermelon, and strawberries. I would have made cream for them but it would have deflated and melted even with the ice packs. Are you hungry?”

 

Alfred had laid out on his towel on his side, watching his boyfriend with an enamored smile. He was wearing that pastel color blocked windbreaker he had gotten for him. Ludwig had insisted the colors were ‘ridiculous’ and yet he wore it often, even in the summer sun the way he was now, to protect his skin. And Ludwig was wearing gym shorts, but Alfred  _ knew  _ he was wearing those swim briefs of his. They were Alfred’s favorite. He didn’t see Ludwig’s legs out in the open all that often, so it was nice when he did have them out. And he enjoyed the dimples Ludwig had above his butt. Speaking of Ludwig’s legs, he wriggled over and laid his head on his shin, still watching him. 

 

“Macarons? Did you make them?” He asked, raising his eyebrows.

Ludwig nodded. “This morning. I told you on the phone when you called me to make sure I didn’t have your bucket and shovel, didn’t I?”

“Ya might have. I can’t remember. Honey lavender, ya said? I didn’t know you could  _ eat  _ lavender…”

“Culinary lavender, you can. I would hardly suggest wading through a field of wild lavender and having your pick at the litter, hm?”

 

Alfred snorted and nodded. Fair enough. He sat up, scooting over again and requesting a macaron. Ludwig presented them in a cute little box with twine strings. He looked at it for a moment before looking over to Ludwig, who was watching the ocean quietly, a breeze tousling blonde hair. He’d worn it down today, Alfred had noticed right away. 

 

“You’re adorable, did you know?” Alfred said with a shake of his head. 

“What?” Ludwig looked at him, seeming a bit startled if not flattered. “What makes you say that?”

“Everything. You just are.”

“That’s very sweet of you to say, Alfred.”

 

Alfred smiled and popped a kiss on Ludwig’s cheek, picking out one of the carefully crafted macarons. It was sweet, but nothing overpowering. Subtle but delightful. Just like Ludwig, he might be so inclined to say. The color was incredible, a pretty lilac appropriate for the lavender flavor. After expressing that he would eat this entire box and more but only having a few, he returned to his position at Ludwig’s legs. 

 

For a while, they stayed like that. Alfred liked to be in the water, to make sandcastles, but he knew that Ludwig burned easily and had bad reactions to too much sand, so he was content to stay right here like this, listening to quiet music playing on his phone, cheek pressed against Ludwig’s shins as Ludwig read from a book quietly. 

 

When Ludwig began to get too hot, he huffed softly and took off the windbreaker, folding it and placing it into his bag to put away. His movement roused Alfred’s attention. 

 

“Gettin’ hot?” Alfred said with a grin, sitting up. “Let’s go for a dip, the water’s nice. I checked it earlier.” He hurried to stand, stepping out into the sun and holding his hand out to Ludwig after putting on his sunglasses. “You want to put on more sunscreen before we go out there?”

 

Ludwig took his hand, standing and letting Alfred spread the cream over his back and shoulders, taking care of his arms and legs himself after wriggling out of his gym shorts. And yes, he was wearing those swim briefs. He grabbed his own sunglasses from his bag before joining his boyfriend to the water. The sand was hot, so they didn’t stroll too long on it, speed walking to the wet sand where the water kissed at their feet, washing back and forth in a melody of the Earth. 

 

Alfred pulled Ludwig into the water a few feet, goading him on and lightly splashing him when he refused to go any further. “C’mon, Luddi! Ya can’t cool down if you’re just standin’ in the sun!” He said. “The sun reflects back onto you even in more in the water--  _ you’re  _ the one who told me that, remember?”

“Alfred,” Ludwig said with a shake of his head. “Oh, hush,you. You know I’m not a very good swimmer.”

“You’re right,” Alfred said, crouching in the water so that his bottom half was submerged. “But I won’t let ya drown, baby, I could never.”

 

Ludwig flushed a bit at the endearment but was insistent, shaking his head. 

 

“What? Ya don’t trust me?” Alfred leered at him playfully, going down on his stomach like a shark and wading through the shallow waters around him, humming the ‘Jaws’ theme and taking playful swipes to make Ludwig jump around. 

“Quit that!” Ludwig said with a soft snort, stepping over him and shaking his head.

“I gotta get ya cooled off somehow, yeah? How about this?” Alfred stood up again, splashing him with the water until Ludwig began to splash him back.

 

They spent hours like that, alternating between playing around in the water, lounging on their towels, snacking, and talking about this and that-- not to mention they found a fish that had been washed up, and Ludwig had been a little sad, saying they shouldn’t just leave it there thus beginning a small argument about what to do with it when it suddenly seemed to come to life and began flipping and flopping around. Alfred had grabbed it, yelling ‘hold on, Bubble Bass, I got you!’ as he ran to put it into the water, and Ludwig followed after him. Then Alfred had chased Ludwig around with his ‘fish hands’. 

 

When the sun began to dip down, and Ludwig was beginning to grow agitated and paranoid about the sand ( and sunburnt ), they left the beach, putting their things into Ludwig’s car then pacing around the boardwalk under the shade.

 

All of the snacks Ludwig had made were gone by now, partially because Ludwig had tripped coming back from the water and kicked sand all over the open containers that Alfred had left there. Whoops. So they decided to get something while they were there. After being hot all day and for health in general, they decided not to get anything fried or insanely sugary. Alfred said he was ‘on it’ and skittered off, leaving Ludwig to stay by the railing.

 

The sun had gone down quite a bit by then, but light still cut across the scene, bathing the thinning crowd in gold. Across the sky, Ludwig watched sparse clouds wade across an ocean of reds and oranges, melting into a deep, inviting blue further out, a similar pattern reflected in the water below. The scent of salt was heavy in the air, and his sunburnt cheeks stung every so slightly from the breeze that carried that salt to him, but cooled his warm skin. His sunglasses had been hooked on his windbreaker once he’d put it on again, but he took them off now and pushed them onto his head to hold his hair out of his eyes. A day well spent, even though he swore he could still feel sand in every crevice of his body even after using the showers. A day well spent, even though he looked like a ripe tomato. A day well spent, even though he’d seen an almost dead fish and had Alfred nearly wipe the grime off on him. Any day spent with Alfred was a day well spent.

 

“Luddi!” Came the musical chirp, and Ludwig lifted his head again as Alfred approached with a pretty-looking container in his hand. He counted layer after layer, fluffy white cream, then peaches, then a layer of granola, more cream, more peaches, and the top was dotted with a few bits of strawberry as well. “I only got one since it’s pretty big, but I got two spoons so we can share. Ya like peaches, don’t ya?”

 

Ludwig nodded, because yes he very much liked peaches. Any type of fruit at all, really, especially paired with such fluffy cream. He thanked Alfred and took his spoon, standing there with his boyfriend as they ate and enjoyed the sunset. He was very much interested in the parfait, but he found himself getting more interested with the way the gold of the sun played on Alfred’s dark down skin, how it reflected so beautifully in his eyes, and even how it looked on the American’s tightly coiled hair. He always noticed how the sun lit Alfred up, especially on days like this, but during the sunset it was especially...magnificent. Alfred was regal. Alfred was vibrant. Alfred was beautiful.

 

The Golden Hour, Ludwig had come to know it, when daylight was so much softer, so much redder and pinker. The Golden Hour, when brown skin was especially... _ luminous _ . But was Alfred ever anything less than absolutely radiant?

 

He felt himself smiling a little and returned his attention back to the parfait, listening to Alfred tell him about his idea for their next date as he dug his spoon around for another scoop of cream and peach.

 

“Hey!” Alfred soon scoffed, looking into the cup and shaking his head. He gasped softly. “You ate all of the peaches, man…”

“What? No, I didn’t,” Ludwig said, turning up his chin , even though he definitely had.

“Are you kiddin’ me? I had, like, 2 pieces!” Alfred said, outraged by this. “I can’t believe ya did me dirty like this, Lud, I really can’t.”

 

Ludwig looked back over at him and gave a soft chuckle, offering him a kiss on the cheek as reparation. Alfred looped an arm around him, patting his side as they finished the rest. Once they had disposed of the container, they made their way back to the parking lot. As they approached Alfred’s car, he tightened his arm around Ludwig and looked up at him.

 

“Can I have a kiss, Peaches?” He asked softly, and Ludwig obliged. They shared a kiss and sure enough, Ludwig’s lips were sweet with the taste of peach. Marvelous.

“You’ll never let me live that down, will you?” Ludwig snorted, referring to the nickname Alfred had shot at him as he pulled away.

Alfred wore a wide grin, tilting his head. “Never. But I think you could redeem yourself if ya pay me back with a peach,” he said.

Ludwig nodded. Fair enough. “I can bring you some tomorrow. You may have to pick them up, depending on how badly my sunburn hurts.”

“My poor Peaches,” Alfred crooned, making Ludwig roll his eyes. “But I wasn’t thinkin’ about anything you can buy at the store.” At Ludwig’s raised eyebrow look, he snuck a hand down and pinched his ass.

 

Ludwig perked up, brushing Alfred’s hand aside and flustering a bright red. They took Ludwig’s car back to his place, and between kisses at the door, Ludwig complained about leaving Alfred’s car there but Alfred told him they’d pick it up tomorrow. And get another peach parfait while they were at it, and  _ share  _ this time.

  
  



End file.
